


the devil having fun

by MiniNephthys



Category: Alice Mare, 灰色庭園 | The Gray Garden
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-20
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-02-26 10:16:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2648357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Why is a pie being baked for him?  It’s not even a meat pie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the devil having fun

There are Worlds, and there are worlds, and the Cheshire Cat is well aware of the difference between the two. This is a lowercase world, albeit a very strange one.

For instance, when he arrived here he had been somewhat lost, lost enough that it apparently showed on what was visible of his face. A young girl had noticed his confusion, and without so much as a by-your-leave had grabbed his hand and dragged him to a village full of cute, cozy houses.

That was how he ended up in this house, waiting for a demon and an angel to finish preparing him some apple pie. There are so many things wrong with that preceding sentence that he doesn’t know where to begin: for one thing, there should be no difference between demons and angels, only in humans’ perceptions of them. Yet the girl with the white wings smells different from the girl with the horns, wings, and tail. Equally delicious, of course, but different.

That’s another thing. He eats souls. Any demon should know that demons eat souls. Why is a pie being baked for him? It’s not even a meat pie.

“All done,” the demon announces, and carries the pie to the table. After slicing it up and putting one slice on a plate in front of him, she waits, expectantly.

The Cheshire Cat looks between her, his fork and knife, and the pie. “I don’t eat apple pie, or any kind of pie. Didn’t I say so earl- mmph?!”

The angel has taken advantage of his open mouth and just stuck a piece of pie in there with his fork. It’s choke or chew, and he decides to chew.

...It tastes really good. Not on the level of childrens’ souls, but close.

He swallows, licks his lips, and grins again. “Well! I can make an exception now and again.”

The Cheshire Cat has absolutely no table manners, and he knows that. He doesn’t usually dine with other demons anyway, unless it’s the White Rabbit, and they usually snipe at each other over meals without caring a whit for manners.

The demon waits for him to be done devouring her pie, looking annoyed the entire time. “Now that you aren’t stuffing your mouth, what’s your name? I’m Dialo, and this is Chelan.”

Chelan smiles and gives a small wave.

“Me? No name at all, call me whatever you like.” It’s bizarre for a demon to ask another demon’s name. Which leads to another thought… that pie was delicious, but he’s not quite full yet, and these two smell tasty. Normally he couldn’t eat another demon, too full of disgusting knowledge, but they’re innocent enough to drag a total stranger into their home and feed him.

Dialo raises her eyebrows. “Is that so? Hm. What brings you here, stranger?”

“Nothing in particular! My stomach was rumbling and I’d quite used up the local population of food,” he says. “Or is that ‘supply’?”

Chelan tilts her head a little as Dialo says, “They’re about the same meaning. ‘Population’’s mostly for animals and people.”

“Ah, yes, people, that’s exactly what I meant.”

“...Excuse us for a minute.” Dialo tugs on Chelan’s arm and pulls her out the door.

Naturally, he follows, only to spy them sitting in a tree, out of his reach. His grin doesn’t fade even though he’s a bit put out. “It’s rude to ignore a guest, you know.”

“It won’t take long.” Dialo speaks into her hand for a minute, something he can’t make out clearly, before raising her voice again. “There’s no problem talking to us from here, is there? We already fed you.”

“Pie isn’t an entire meal for anyone, is it? It’s even more rude to tease someone with the beginnings of a good meal and not deliver on the rest,” he says. They continue to stay firmly in the tree, and he’s just about to give up and look elsewhere when-

“Oh, look, Arbus, it’s the demon we were told about.”

“That it is, Ater. Should we say hello to him?”

Two other cat demons appear behind him. They don’t smell nearly as delicious as these two, so they must be far older.

He turns to them and smiles wider, ignoring the other two for now. “Now, what do I owe the pleasure to, hmm?”

Ater asks, “Dialo said she was feeling threatened. Do you think that’s enough?”

“That’s enough, I think,” says Arbus. “If not, we’ll apologize to Lord Kcalb later. After all, it’s better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.”

Ater’s face lights up. “You’re right as always, Arbus!”

The two of them summon spears to their hands, and the Cheshire Cat quickly decides he would rather not get into this fight over some food that isn’t even human and isn’t even in despair. He isn’t a fighter to begin with.

The Rabbit’s going to mock him later for fleeing so quickly. He can already hear his annoying voice in his head… He should have just taken the pie and left.


	2. a world you can get lost in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's an odd visitor outside the school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't going to continue this but apparently I am.

David doesn’t recognize the grey-haired woman in a suit outside his school. They rarely get any visitors, so he can’t help but be a little bit cautious as he approaches her. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” she answers, a polite smile appearing on her face. She wears an eyepatch, but the remaining eye sparkles with vitality. “What can I do for you?”

That seems… backwards, and he falters. “If you’re here to inspect the school, it was just looked at a month ago-”

“Nah, I’m not here for that. Kind of lost, actually.” Her expression drops into more honest annoyance. “I’m looking for someone in particular, but there’s no way he’s around here. Can’t figure out where he would be if he’s not here, though.”

That doesn’t make much sense. “What kind of person are you looking for?”

“You probably wouldn’t believe me,” she says, shrugging her shoulders

“Try me?” He has seen quite a bit more than most people would expect.

She thinks for a moment, then gives in, starting, “Well… there’s this cat demon.”

Instantly he tenses up. “We’ve met.”

“You have?” she asks. “There’s lots of cat demons, and humans don’t usually see a lot, in my experience.”

“I’ve only met one,” he says, “but if you’ve come here, specifically, looking for one, we’re probably thinking of the same demon.”

“Alright. So, there’s this cat demon who nearly ate some kids at my home. We got him to run away, but there’s no telling if he’ll come back or not- so I’m here to teach him a lesson.” Her frown becomes more pronounced as she adds, “But this is a human world, and I can’t seem to get into the demon one from here.”

David sees the problem. “You’d want to wait until nightfall. The demons here reside in dream worlds… With everyone here awake, it makes sense that you can’t visit with- how are you planning to get in, exactly?”

The woman fishes a white stone from her pocket. “Good for world-traveling. For official business use only, no vacations. Etihw’d probably let me get away with it if I did some sight-seeing but I don’t wanna abuse their generosity.”

He blinks. “Etihw?” That’s not the name of anyone he’s heard of, real or legendary.

“God of my world. Hold on a sec-” The woman slips off her suit jacket. Two white feathered wings spread out from her back. “That help clear things up?”

David’s still a little wary; angel wings don’t necessarily make anyone a friend more than rabbit ears do. Still, anyone planning to beat up the Cheshire Cat is a friend of his.

He holds out his hand, which she doesn’t hesitate to shake firmly. “Everyone here calls me Teacher.”

“Weird name, but we’ve got worse at home. Just call me Grora.” Grora flexes her wings a little. “Ugh, it’s super cramped in there.”

“I’m sorry, but the children might see you if they come outside, so-”

“Yeah, I got it. Putting them back in now.”


	3. an act of stealth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grora completes her mission.

“I was hungry, and there were children.” The Cheshire Cat’s fur rose in his annoyance. Defending himself was something he hated having to do. “How could I have resisted?”

The White Rabbit merely stared back at him impassively, from his usual spot. “You had just devoured an entire pie. How hungry could you have been?”

“The pie was delicious,” said the Cheshire Cat, grinning again, “but you and I both know that it’s not real food. It doesn’t fill my stomach as much as more delectable treats.”

Sighing, the White Rabbit replied, “As long as nothing comes of it, I suppose I don’t care whether you were foiled by a tall tree and chased off by cats. The humiliation is all yours.”

The Cheshire Cat let out a ‘hmmph’ and looked around. He’d felt somebody enter their domain a few moments ago, but he hadn’t been expecting any of the Alices to join them quite so soon… He had better go and greet them.

Would it be the teacher? He was certainly foolish enough to come back a second time, but not very tasty, aged past his prime. Well, he would make do with what he could-

“Oh, what do we have here? That sure looks like the cat demon I’m looking for.”

He came to a halt. The woman across the hallway from him resembled an ‘angel’ in appearance, and was no demon that he recognized.

She smirked. “You wouldn’t be the demon who nearly tried to eat two of the kids in my world the other day, would you?” she asked, already drawing her sword.

“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not,” he answered, keeping his tone flippant. “You certainly are a violent type, aren’t you?”

“Nah, I’m not. A violent type would kill you. I’m just planning to beat you senseless ‘til you swear never to come back to our world, okay?” she asked.

This was not a good situation for him. He could run as well as any other demon, but he was no fighter: being able to overpower human children didn’t say much. If he just promised to leave that world alone now-

-then he would never be able to live with himself, being so easily intimidated. Running was a better option.

So the moment the woman started toward him, he disappeared down the hallway, not even bothering to call out to the White Rabbit as he passed him. Let him fend for himself.

The angel was fast on his heels, and the only way he’d be able to lose her would be by heading into one of the Alice’s worlds. He could hide out there as long as he had to.

He headed toward the first door he saw, picking randomly, and tried to open it-

The door was locked. He had stolen the keys himself, and he’d already strewn the keys about inside other Alice’s worlds in preparation for an Alice visiting.

Sometimes he really hated planning ahead, he thought, as he was stabbed from behind.

“...Rather unsportsmanlike,” he said as she removed her sword. He turned to face her and her annoying grin.

“You eat children, don’t lecture me about sportsmanship,” she answered. “Any time you want to give up-”

There was one trick he still had up his sleeve. At this moment it would probably do him no good, but out of spite, he would still take it from her before he had to give in.

He lunged and grabbed, and pulled hard before her XXXX came away.

She stopped, blade still pointed towards him but expression now bewildered. “What did you just do? Hey, what did you just do?!”

He held his hands up. “Nothing of importance. See, are any of your possessions missing?”

“I don’t see anything wrong, but...” She scowled. “You must have taken something.”

“Well, if you can tell me what it is, then I’ll be sure to give it back. But I’m afraid you won’t find it again if you kill me.” Stealing XXXX didn’t work that way. “And if I can’t return it to you by visiting your world again, then you won’t ever be able to get it back at all.”

She only thought for a moment. “Swear to me that you won’t come back, and I won’t come back here either.”

He tilted his head. “You don’t want-?”

“It can’t be as important as keeping my world safe. Swear.” She jabbed her sword at him for emphasis.

“Very well. I swear, I won’t return to your world, ever again. Satisfied?” he asked.

She nodded, and withdrew a small white stone from her pocket before disappearing from sight.

...He could hear the White Rabbit’s mocking laughter from here.

* * *

Grora had been relatively satisfied with her mission success. She was still nagged by the idea that he had taken something, even if she had no idea what it was. Something that was important…

Yosafire and Froze were in the castle to bring Etihw and Kcalb dessert again, and Wodahs was staring at them from nearby, somewhat grumpy. He always was that way when other people’s food was delivered, no matter what the quality.

“Lighten up, head angel,” she said, deciding to dismiss her worries from her mind. “Every time they come over it depresses you. Why not focus on the positives?”

“What positives?” he asked, dully.

“Well, they’re pretty cute and all,” she replied with a smile. “Them and their XXXX.”

He stared at her as the word she was trying to say failed to leave her mouth; her lips moved but no sound came out.

“I mean their XXXX. XXXX!” She knew what she meant, she just couldn’t say it. “What’s wrong with me?”

Wodahs’ frown worsened slightly. “Come with me.”

She followed him to the nearest office, where he grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. She tried to write it out: XXXX. “Still nothing. Is this what that demon stole from me?”

“Is it that important?” he asked.

“It’s seriously important! If he took more than just the word, it’s- it’s really-!”

“Now, what are you making a such fuss about?” Etihw asked, floating into the room. “We heard you yelling.”

“I’m missing XXXX,” said Grora. “I don’t know how to say it, and I’ve tried other words for it. What you have with Sir Devil, Yosafire and Froze-”

“XXXX,” said Wodahs. She didn’t understand what he said, but Etihw obviously did, and their eyes widened.

“That’s some thievery, alright. And this is the demon who’s sworn not to come back, and you’ve sworn not to go back to his world?” they asked. Grora nodded. “Hm… That’s a sticky situation…”

Then they tugged Grora into a hug. “The thing about XXXX is it’s not something you make for yourself,” they said. “If you’ve lost all your XXXX, then we’ll give you more of it. Even if you can’t give it to us back, we’ll understand.”

Grora hugged them back tightly, then let go, and they stepped away. There was a small silence, before Etihw looked to Wodahs.

“...I’m not going to hug her,” he said.

“Not even a little?” they asked. “Darn.”


End file.
